Issue No. 1: Ten Tips for Composing for Band

Composing and arranging for wind ensemble/concert band can be a daunting task if one is not accustomed to working with this unique and monstrously sized large ensemble. Having written several pieces for wind ensemble over the years (and performed in them from my earliest experiences as an instrumentalist), I have learned a few hacks along the way that can improve the overall quality of a composer/arranger’s work for the medium. Here are my personal (and entirely subjective) Ten Tips for Composing for Band/Wind Ensemble:

  1. Make space for resonance!

  2. Clarinet/trombone sections are your “strings.”

  3. Score woodwinds by subfamilies.

  4. Think in terms of “flat” keys.

  5. Plan for the percussion.

  6. Keep an eye on rests.

  7. Don’t ignore the euphonium and tenor saxophone.

  8. Cue all of your solos.

  9. Beware of fixed pitch/variable pitch instrumental doublings.

  10. Study scores by Alfred Reed.

Below, I will elaborate on each of these ten points.

1. Make space for resonance!

Clifton Williams, Symphonic Dance No. 3 (“Fiesta”), complete scrolling score video

This is probably my primary bit of advice for folks writing/arranging for wind ensemble.

Sometimes I think of the wind ensemble as an orchestra that’s had its top and bottom octaves lopped off Sleepy-Hollow style. Therefore, you must artificially create space for overtone resonance to compensate for that army of double basses and cellos you don’t have access to when working with a band.

To achieve this, keep your bass instruments lower in their registers and your inner voices on the higher side. By allowing this little stretch between the acoustic floor and the middle, you create the aural illusion of depth by allowing overtones from bass notes to mingle with inner voices. I know it’s tempting to have a ton of low horn writing or to push that bass clarinet into the stratosphere, but trust me - that isn’t going to be where they best serve a full-band texture.

Listen to Clifton Williams’ Symphonic Dance No. 3 (“Fiesta”), a war horse worth study.

Notice how Williams keeps the bass line low throughout and the inner voices in a comfortable middle or higher register (e.g. the last chord of the composition has the 3rd trombone on an A at the top of the bass clef staff).

2. Clarinet/trombone sections are your “strings.”

Gustav Holst, Second Suite for Military Band, movement II. Notice the clarinets in all of their string-section-role glory!

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A common hangup with first-time band composers/arrangers is that they try to handle clarinets and trombones in the same fashion as they would in an orchestral setting. In other words, they conceive of clarinets as one-on-a-part soloists working with other sections of the orchestra. “But I don’t wanna have a dozen honkin’ clarinets playing the same thing at the same time!” they cry. Yeah, actually. Ya do. Ditto the trombones.

Think of your entire clarinet family and trombone family working together as your “strings section” of your band. (The saxophone family can also be a part of this alliance.) The clarinet/trombone/(sometimes saxes) squad can provide phenomenally in-tune unisons, powerful crescendos, long sustained chords, and delicate tapering to pianissimo - everything you’d want from a good string section of an orchestra. Plus, the range of the clarinet and trombone sections is surprisingly wide.

Even if you only have access to three B-flat clarinet parts and a bass clarinet plus three trombone parts, you still have a powerful “string” cohort at your disposal.

Those of us in the New Music world might be salivating at the prospect of having double-digits clarinets, imagining all of the intricate divisi textures we could create! I’m not saying you cannot or should not do that. Just know that there’s great power in composing for band when the clarinet and trombone sections are thought of and written for as a Massive Unit.

Listen to Holst’s Second Suite for Military Band, Movement II here.

3. Score woodwinds by subfamilies.

Woodwind scoring Option A (left) seems like it would work just fine; however, preferable scoring Option B (right) is going to be much more full, resonant, and audible.

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This tip addresses a sneaky issue that arises when handling the woodwind section of the wind ensemble. A composer may lament in a rehearsal of their new band work: “Why do the woodwinds sound so weak, dull, and overwhelmed? It sounded great when I smashed the ‘play’ button in Finale!”

This might be the result of conceiving the woodwinds as one large family rather than as four subfamilies:

  • piccolo/flutes

  • double reeds

  • clarinets

  • saxophones

Scoring for woodwinds as a giant block may lead you to put a top-line melody in just the flutes and oboes, leaving whole sections to play inner-voice chords or supporting lines. The result? A muddy mess that will get lost in performance.

Instead, treat the double reeds, clarinet, and saxophone subsections as their own SATB families and score appropriately. Then utilize all of your flutes to double the top-line melody (an octave higher if possible) and the piccolo to double an octave higher still. Seems like overkill? Nah. Your woodwinds will sparkle and cut through the mighty blast of brass and percussion.

Of course, in more delicate or exposed passages this maxim needn’t be observed. But this is my favorite solution to having woodwinds meaningfully contribute to tutti playing.

4. Think in terms of “flat” keys.

Alan Theisen, Allegro Capriccioso, mm. 66-72.

Even in a piece without a key (albeit with tonal centricity), “flat-side” thinking is an ally for resonance and comfort.

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When I began composing my piece Noir Fantasy in the summer of 2013, I improvised the opening figure at the piano in the key of B minor. I loved the melody and the sinister bass line and knew this is how I wanted my latest band commission to begin!

But yikes.

B minor would not be the friendliest key for a band to navigate. So I took my figure, transposed it down to B-flat minor (two sharps to five flats), and wrote down the result as the official introduction. It took some time for me to quit hearing that melody/chord progression in my head as belonging in B minor but eventually I got over it - and the ensembles that have performed Noir Fantasy are decidedly much happier because I made the change.

Noir Fantasy proceeds from B-flat minor to A-flat major to G minor. If the entire work were a half step higher or lower, those keys would work splendidly for orchestra but not so much for the community band that commissioned the composition.

Bands love playing in “flat” keys.

“Alan, I don’t compose music with key signatures! I have progressed beyond such mortal concerns!” Okay, Stockhausen. Settle down. This tip can yet be useful.

Tonal centers/pitch classes that would feature prominently in “flat” keys can still help you achieve a certain degree of comfort and stable intonation from a wind ensemble. In my gnarly little Hindemith-on-an-angry-day fanfare, Allegro Capriccioso, I tended to favor sonorities and temporary pitch centers that one could analyze as being derived from “flat keys.” This particular piece is dissonant, angular, and barely tonally centric, but nevertheless when it came to the cadential measures of the work I was thinking in terms of a bizarre “E-flat-majorish.”

5. Plan for the percussion.

Alan Theisen, Noir Fantasy, mm. 1-5.

Percussion parts are clearly marked and distributed so that each line could be performed easily by a single person or team. Timpani pitches indicated at opening.

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One of the true joys of writing for band is that you have a seemingly infinite array of percussion instruments at your disposal - and almost as many percussionists to play them. No orchestral music director shaking their head about having to hire a fourth percussionist, here! So go ahead. Knock yourself out and throw everything and the kitchen sink at your wind ensemble’s percussion section!

Just know, however, that conductors and the good folks in the percussion section are going to like you a lot more if you have made a detailed scheme rather than letting them strategize a battle plan for who is going to cover what instrument/part on their own.

I tend to think of percussion lines in my score not by instrument but by individual person or percussionist team. For example, rather than putting “snare drum,” “bass drum,” and “crash cymbals” as separate lines and letting the performers sort out who will tackle what items at which moments, I’ll create a line called “Percussion 1” then distribute instruments to that specific person/team that they can easily handle with enough time to move between instruments. (Shostakovich does the former in his orchestral scores and it irritates me. Love you, Dmitri…) I clearly indicate which instrument is to be played at what time. When in doubt, spell it out. This cuts down on wasted rehearsal time and the potential for parts being accidentally omitted in performance.

Also, don’t forget to indicate timpani pitches at the start of a piece and changes of pitches as they occur during the composition. It’s such an easy thing for you to do as composer/arranger and saves headaches for the timpanist.

Listen to my Noir Fantasy - complete with scrolling score video - here.

6. Keep an eye on rests.

Alan Theisen, Symphony No. 2, movement II, conclusion.

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Wind players tire. We do. It’s just a fact.

Be sure to include rest time for performers to refresh their lungs and embouchures.

My Symphony No. 2 is about 23 minutes of music in four movements performed without pause. At the end of the second movement - approximately the halfway point of the symphony - I included a climactic section wherein the woodwinds perform an ecstatic aleatoric outburst for approximately 15 seconds while the brass get a little break; immediately after, the brass have their own proclamation while the woodwinds sit out (saxophones ended up doing double duty). This in no way compromised my artistic goals and provided a courteous reprieve for the wind players in the band.

When dealing with younger ensembles, providing rest breaks is also useful. However, be cautious not to make the periods of silence too long as middle-school brains can wander and missed entrances suddenly litter your sonic landscape. (Much love to all the middle-school band conductors out there. Y’all are truly cueing machines.)

7. Don’t ignore the euphonium and tenor saxophone.

Holst, Second Suite, movement I euphonium solo

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For folks writing for band who are accustomed to working with orchestras or chamber instrumental groups, the sudden appearance of two instruments can be a bit of a mystery: euphonium and tenor saxophone. What the heck do you do with these things?

In fact, this is not a bug but a feature!

Both euphonium and tenor saxophone exist as chameleons to reinforce whatever else you happen to need in a wind ensemble.

Need more power in the third clarinets? Add tenor saxophone. Need more French horn power? Euphonium. Need a timbral connection between woodwinds and brass? Tenor saxophone and euphonium.

These instruments are both extremely versatile and indispensable in your tool kit as band composer/arranger.

A note about the euphonium: due to its shape, it is tempting to regard the instrument as a “mini tuba” and utilize it primarily as a lower-bass-clef range entity. In fact, I think of the euph as the “fifth horn.” The instrument shines in its upper register and has a noble, warm sound. In his Second Suite, Holst wrote a famous solo for the euphonium in the first movement (see example at rehearsal marking E). Notice the consistent sounding above the bass clef top line. Although capable of lower tones (see rehearsal marking G), this famous solo sings in a delightful tenor not a thunderous bass.

8. Cue all of your solos.

Eric Whitacre, October. Opening oboe solo is cued in the flutes. Pretty good, Mr. Whitacre. Prettay… prettay… prettay good.

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“Cue solos in other instruments when I’m writing for younger bands. Got it!”

Nah, y’all. I mean all the time.

Why? Because you simply never know when even a large top-tier wind ensemble at a prestigious university is going to have a sudden English horn shortage. Or when the soprano saxophonist is not going to show up the night of the concert because they’re ill. Or when the high school band you are working with has four bassoonists but still none of them can play your demonic 5/8 scherzo solo and it’s the week of the concert - but the bari sax kiddo can.

Just do it. Save everyone time and trouble.

You’ll be a hero.

9. Beware of fixed pitch/variable pitch instrumental doublings.

Robert Jager, Esprit de Corps, opening. Piccolo and xylophone, baybay, LEZZGO!

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It’s common to double high woodwind parts with fixed-pitch percussion instruments (piccolo and xylophone, flutes and glockenspiel, etc.) for purposes of adding extra color or punch to those lines, but be careful. Those moments can be ear-splitting deep into a concert when those shrill little death whistles are 25 cents higher than when the concert started and that xylophone has stayed exactly the same.

Even worse when it’s a slow, exposed clarinet solo around the thirteen-minute mark of your band opus and the only accompaniment is vibraphone.

Not saying don’t do it, just… flag it in your brain.

10. Study scores by Alfred Reed.

Alfred Reed, Armenian Dances Part I - scrolling score video

Alfred Reed is, in my estimation, the Ravel of the wind band world. A graduate of Juilliard, he was a staff composer/arranger for NBC and ABC after World War II. He produced a massive body of work for the wind band, including several works that remain standard repertoire. Even if your compositional voice sounds absolutely nothing like his, I urge you to deeply study his scores. There are so many lessons regarding orchestration, spacing, timbre, effective percussion writing, and more to be learned from pieces of Reed’s such as Russian Christmas Music, Armenian Dances Part 1, The Hounds of Spring, and Symphony No. 3.

BONUS TIP: LISTEN AND LISTEN MORE!

Throughout this essay, I have provided examples from scores that should be readily accessible for almost any reader because it’s either old-school standard rep or you can download it from my website.

But the journey does NOT end here!

Listen to the incredible work being produced by contemporary composers whose music is transforming the wind ensemble/band terrain! I have provided some links to audio/video for your further exploration:

As with any collection of advice from a single person, feel free to ignore, bend, or break the guidelines offered above. The wind ensemble is a fabulous medium for communicating contemporary musical ideas and is far more sophisticated, nuanced, and flexible than many composers assume it to be.

Let me know what you think of my Ten Tips for Composing for Band/Wind Ensemble! Drop me a comment or shoot me a DM on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. I’d love to hear from you and (perhaps) be of assistance.

Happy composing/arranging!

Composition EssayAlan Theisencomposition essay, band, wind ensemble, composing, arranging5 Comments